Page 46 of The Mistake

“Charlotte?”

“There’s not a lot to say, Cassie. Honestly, I wishthere was a lot I could say, but there isn’t. We … for the first month, we didn’t see each other. I was at his home, and he was here. Only when Ivan came to pay me a visit did I move out here, and to be honest, I miss his home. It’s a lot nicer and I can go exploring the grounds, and the rooms. It is a lovely home. Here, it’s boring.”

“You never liked the city life,” Cassie said.

“I was … the mistake,” I said.

“Don’t say that.”

“They were going to kidnap you,” I said. “You do know that. They wanted to have someone to use leverage against our dad. Instead, someone fucked up and they got me. You should be the one here, married. You would fit in.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” Cassie said. “You haven’t seen the way Ive looks at you.”

“He doesn’t look at me.”

“No? I saw the way he looked at you through dinner. He wants to see you happy.”

“He and I … we haven’t … you know … done it.”

“You haven’t had sex?”

“He doesn’t find me attractive.”

“I doubt that,” Cassie said.

“He sees me as a child.”

Cassie scrunched up her nose. “Is that a bad thing? I mean, seriously?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, because in truth, that wasn’t a bad thing. “I’m not a child, but I also don’t want to stay in a bad marriage.”

“Is he mean to you?”

“No.”

“Then why nottalk to him? Why not ask him for … you know.” Cassie groaned. “I cannot believe I’m advising my sister to ask for sex.”

Cassie pressed her fingers to her head as she was trying to rub out the memory of her asking. This did make me smile.

“What’s it like?”I asked.

“Sex?”

“Yes.” I know Cassie has done it. There were a couple of guys at school, who after having sex with Cassie, announced it to the whole school. She’d been mortified. The club had been sure to punish the guys. One of them had been a jock, and Dad or one of the guys had broken his pitching arm, when he needed it most. The other guy had been a geek, and well, he’d been at the hospital while some kind of important life-changing decision was being made by some tech scouts or something. I don’t know. Either way, they had both paid the price for humiliating my sister.

“It, er, it can be good. The first time isn’t great. It’s kind of awkward, but I don’t know how it would be for you. My first time was with a loser, Charlotte. He didn’t have the first clue of what he was doing, and it wasn’t great.” She wrinkled her nose. “Ive doesn’t look like a loser who doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

Therewas that.

The door to Ive’s office opened and Rage walked out. He didn’t look happy, and neither did Ive.Ivan seemed to be in quite a pleasant mood still. I wondered if he had put my husband and Rage in a bad mood.

Rage, Cassie, and Ivan left minutes later. It was just Ive and me.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Fine. I’m sorry I didn’t know it was your birthday.”

This made me smile. “It’s okay.”

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